Adjusting for population growth, there are...well, a BUNCH more than the thirteen hundred and fifty-two Music City guitar pickers John Sebastian wrote about in 1966. Indeed, guitar-toting cats in Nashville outnumber the pickup trucks and that's saying something. It's also saying something that, in a city full of six-string savants, there is one guitarist all the other guitarists watch in awe. A player who can float a gentle, lilting line and then launch a ferocious fretboard attack in the space of a few measures. A multi-talented axeman like J.D. Simo.

Born in the shadow of Wrigley Field, the Windy City's electric blues tradition was J.D.'s birthright. After taking up the guitar and obsessively studying the recorded works of his musical forefathers, J.D. hit the road at age 15 and never looked back. His musical sojourn eventually led him to Nashville where he joined a working band, cranking out C&W classics on Lower Broadway for the honky tonk crowd. No mere chicken picker, jaws routinely dropped as J.D. unleashed his blues-soaked take on the country cannon, making old favorites sound brand new. He also slipped in blues stalwarts like Tampa Red's "It Hurts Me, Too," trading his Tele for a Les Paul to add even more colors to the tonal palette. It didn't take long until J.D.'s name was on the lips of every discerning music aficionado in town.

Eager to do his own thing, J.D. accepted an invitation from bassist Frank Swart and drummer Adam Abrashoff to join an informal jam session and, at the end of a 3-hour improvisation, SIMO was born! A power trio for the new millennium, SIMO harkens back to the days when bands built followings not online, but on stage. Boston native Swart has a laudable list of credits as a bassist and producer for artists like Morphine, Norah Jones and Patty Griffin. Drummer Abrashoff came up in the same Akron, Ohio music scene as The Black Key's Dan Auerbach and laid down an engaging, polyrhythmic foundation for Nashville avant-garde ensemble The Electric Experiment. Together, these three master musicians conjure a sorcerous sound that assaults your senses in all the best ways and leaves you wanting more.

This aural alchemy has been captured on their debut single, "Shake It" b/w "AOH." Just listen to the urgency of "Shake It," a track that practically COMMANDS you to get up and move! Flip the platter and marvel at players' prowess on AOH! After hearing this single, two things are certain: 1) you will want to hear it again (and again), and 2) you will frantically search your local listings to see if you can catch SIMO live. They may be coming to your town, and in the meanwhile treasure this slice of timeless vinyl and tell your friends that SIMO is the cream of the new musical crop!

Shindig magazine
JD Simo is a talented singer and guitar mangler from Nashville who, like Jack White and Dan Auberbach, has a soul that lies in the music of the blues-rock and
power trios of the late '60s. In days gone by he would surely have been a guitar hero, possessing the confident approach and tone of the greats. On this debut his tight unit do a darned good job of getting that smoky, psych blues sound down pat; not tired, bored old bar room rock, but the type of heavy retro grooves that now so often stem from Sweden.

"Shake It" definitely has something of The Black Keys about it with some authentic Kak/Oxford Circle-like San Franciscan twists and turns, whilst "AOH" is a more melodic psych tinged number that could quite easily be related to The Yardbirds' "Think About It". All together cool.
-Jon 'Mojo' Mills